Ursula Thiess
Encyclopedia
Ursula Thiess was a German
film actress who had a brief Hollywood career in the 1950s
Thiess began her career on the stage in her native Germany and by dubbing female voices in American
films as Ursula Schmidt. After she married Georg Otto Thiess, she became Ursula Thiess and was featured in many German magazines, including several cover photos, as well as the cover of Life magazine, 1954, as an upcoming model, and she was dubbed the "most beautiful woman in the world." She left postwar Germany at the urging of Howard Hughes
and signed up with RKO. She co-starred with Robert Stack
in The Iron Glove (1952), Rock Hudson
in Bengal Brigade
(1954), Glenn Ford
in The Americano
(1955), and Robert Mitchum
in Bandido (1956).
, she was drafted into service working as farm labor. After that, she returned to do acting on stage, where she met and married her first husband, German film producer Georg Otto Thiess. They had two children, Manuela and Michael. That marriage dissolved in 1947, and in 1948, she began a modeling career in Berlin. Her unusual beauty caught the eye of Howard Hughes, who made her a contract offer to join RKO Studios.
She met and eventually married Robert Taylor
in 1954 and virtually abandoned her film career to become a mother and housewife. The Taylors had two children Terry and Tessa. They moved with Ursula's two children from her previous marriage, to their 114 acre (0.46134204 km²) ranch in Brentwood, California, in 1956, and lived there until Taylor's death from cancer in 1969. Ursula's two children, Manuela and Michael, had many adjustment problems adapting to their new life, and were often in trouble with the police, causing the family to suffer bad publicity as a result. Her son, Michael, who had served a year in a German prison for attempting to poison his natural father, died shortly before Robert Taylor's death, in 1969 of drug overdose. Ursula discovered him dead when she stopped by his motel to drop him off some medication.
After Taylor's death, she was obliged to sell their ranch. She moved to Bel Air, and in 1973, she married film distributor Marshal Schacker, and they stayed married until his death from cancer in 1986.
Ursula was known to be an excellent home decorator, gourmet cook, shadow box maker, and UCLA Children's Hospital volunteer. As the wife to Robert Taylor, she gave up her acting career to become a full-time mother and homemaker, though she generally accompanied her husband on film locations, often with her two younger children by Taylor. She was also known to go hunting and fishing with Taylor, who was a passionate sportsman.
Ursula Thiess wrote her autobiography, ...But I Have Promises to Keep: My Life Before, With and After Robert Taylor.
Thiess died of natural causes in an assisted living care facility in Burbank on June 19, 2010, at the age of 86. She was survived by three of her four children, Manuela, Terry, and Tessa.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
film actress who had a brief Hollywood career in the 1950s
Thiess began her career on the stage in her native Germany and by dubbing female voices in American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
films as Ursula Schmidt. After she married Georg Otto Thiess, she became Ursula Thiess and was featured in many German magazines, including several cover photos, as well as the cover of Life magazine, 1954, as an upcoming model, and she was dubbed the "most beautiful woman in the world." She left postwar Germany at the urging of Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...
and signed up with RKO. She co-starred with Robert Stack
Robert Stack
Robert Stack was an American actor. In addition to acting in more than 40 films, he was the star of the 1959-1963 ABC television series The Untouchables and later served as the host of Unsolved Mysteries.-Early life:...
in The Iron Glove (1952), Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson
Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., later Roy Harold Fitzgerald , known professionally as Rock Hudson, was an American film and television actor, recognized as a romantic leading man during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably in several romantic comedies with Doris Day.Hudson was voted "Star of the Year",...
in Bengal Brigade
Bengal Brigade
Bengal Brigade is a 1954 American action film directed by Laslo Benedek and starring Rock Hudson, Arlene Dahl and Ursula Thiess.Set in British India in 1857, at the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny...
(1954), Glenn Ford
Glenn Ford
Glenn Ford was a Canadian-born American actor from Hollywood's Golden Era with a career that spanned seven decades...
in The Americano
The Americano (1955 film)
The Americano is a 1955 American Western movie, starring Glenn Ford and directed by William Castle.- Plot :Texas rancher Sam Dent; Glenn Ford takes a small herd of three bulls to Brazil where he has sold them for a small fortune. There, he finds himself in the middle of a range war. And in love...
(1955), and Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
in Bandido (1956).
Family
Ursula was born in 1924 to Wilhelmine Lange and Hans Schmitd. At age 17, for refusing to join the Hitler YouthHitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
, she was drafted into service working as farm labor. After that, she returned to do acting on stage, where she met and married her first husband, German film producer Georg Otto Thiess. They had two children, Manuela and Michael. That marriage dissolved in 1947, and in 1948, she began a modeling career in Berlin. Her unusual beauty caught the eye of Howard Hughes, who made her a contract offer to join RKO Studios.
She met and eventually married Robert Taylor
Robert Taylor (actor)
Robert Taylor was an American film and television actor.-Early life:Born Spangler Arlington Brugh in Filley, Nebraska, he was the son of Ruth Adaline and Spangler Andrew Brugh, who was a farmer turned doctor...
in 1954 and virtually abandoned her film career to become a mother and housewife. The Taylors had two children Terry and Tessa. They moved with Ursula's two children from her previous marriage, to their 114 acre (0.46134204 km²) ranch in Brentwood, California, in 1956, and lived there until Taylor's death from cancer in 1969. Ursula's two children, Manuela and Michael, had many adjustment problems adapting to their new life, and were often in trouble with the police, causing the family to suffer bad publicity as a result. Her son, Michael, who had served a year in a German prison for attempting to poison his natural father, died shortly before Robert Taylor's death, in 1969 of drug overdose. Ursula discovered him dead when she stopped by his motel to drop him off some medication.
After Taylor's death, she was obliged to sell their ranch. She moved to Bel Air, and in 1973, she married film distributor Marshal Schacker, and they stayed married until his death from cancer in 1986.
Ursula was known to be an excellent home decorator, gourmet cook, shadow box maker, and UCLA Children's Hospital volunteer. As the wife to Robert Taylor, she gave up her acting career to become a full-time mother and homemaker, though she generally accompanied her husband on film locations, often with her two younger children by Taylor. She was also known to go hunting and fishing with Taylor, who was a passionate sportsman.
Ursula Thiess wrote her autobiography, ...But I Have Promises to Keep: My Life Before, With and After Robert Taylor.
Thiess died of natural causes in an assisted living care facility in Burbank on June 19, 2010, at the age of 86. She was survived by three of her four children, Manuela, Terry, and Tessa.